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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24335410">Raising a City</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClearAutumnVibes/pseuds/ClearAutumnVibes'>ClearAutumnVibes</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Half-Elf, How Do I Tag This, I think?, Magic, Of a Singular Event, One Shot, Rebuilding an Ancient City, Self-Indulgent, Stream of Consciousness</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 06:09:21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>969</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24335410</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClearAutumnVibes/pseuds/ClearAutumnVibes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Twenty years, he's waited for this. He had bled for this moment, worked for it, ran away to live another day, just for this. Ever since he was born, he had been waiting to rebuild Dyved. Now here he is, ready and willing, even if he's not sure what the price will be. He's willing though, for the scattered people of a once great nation, for the family he's lost in a pyre, for Ilenan his greatest friend and brother, he'll make sure of it.</p>
<p>(That night, Hayden's screams echo in the forest that surrounds its ruins as rock and rubble reforms and rebuilds.)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Raising a City</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The pine tree forest is lit gold and green as the sun begins to die. The sky is golden with wisps of fading blue. Birds sing their songs, requiems for the dying sun, love songs and odes, and tales the forest never forgot. The day is over and night takes a hold of it, darkness slowly creeping, stalking like a wolf about its prey.</p>
<p>Closing his eyes, Hayden breathes in the atmosphere.</p>
<p><em>Listen</em>. Calls the forest, connect as it is to him.</p>
<p><em>Feel. </em>Calls the ruins of the once brilliant city that hums beneath, rubble and stone fallen to waste.</p>
<p><em>Live.</em> Calls the spirits of the ancestors, souls left from the violent fall.</p>
<p>And he does. He listens and feels and lives because this is why he’s here. This is what he was born for. Twenty years of blood, pain, and <em>loss.</em> He had lost himself to this. Lost a chance to have a stable home in Gloria, lost years of youth running away, lost <em>Ilenan</em> and by the earth, the last was the biggest loss of all.</p>
<p>Taking a deep breath, he opened his eyes and cuts his arm. He squeezes the arm, hissing in pain and lets it run on the mossy floor. Red droplets blooming against cold stone and plush green moss. Wind kicks up as Dyved reaches out to him and he reaches back.</p>
<p>Runes glow the same blue as the swirl on his forehead. His eyes glowing green as magic swells with the wind. It’s an orchestra, a symphony, of magic and memory, swirling around him as runes glowed and his own magic reacted. A hooking sensation deep within his chest pulls and pulls, until he is connected to this land in blood and magic.</p>
<p>Memories of Dyved flood him, of King Pwyll and King Marlin, memories of war and blood and bodies. People scattered under Prince Pwyll now King by force with the fall of his Father Cu. He recalls the green and white and grey of Dyved being overshadowed by blood. The sky once bright and blue now dyed a horrific red, the air thick with the scent of copper.</p>
<p>He chokes on it, as memories pile and stack atop one another.</p>
<p>
  <em>He’s Pwyll, whose father is dead and people fleeing. He’s directing them as best as he can as his siblings work to stall the army at their heels as best they can. Every crackle of fire, every splash of water and gust of air has him paranoid, his own magic shivering and wanting to join the fray. He reigns himself in. The people of Dyved are more important right now. </em>
</p>
<p><em>Then he’s Marlin, raising stone columns and etching seal with four other people, runes glowing, magic swirling and once it is raised pride swells within him. A proud gin fills his face, </em>‘Dyved’<em> he called it. There are people eager to settle, who </em>want<em> to settle in the home he’s built for them. All five clans that once were separated now together living and breathing, it is peace and tranquility, a promise of hope. </em></p>
<p>
  <em>He’s Lance. He’s Galahad. He’s Genevieve. He’s Beria. He’s Arthur. He’s-</em>
</p>
<p>Screaming.</p>
<p>Hayden is screaming. The memories are overwhelming as Dyved begins to rebuild itself. History and experience and pain rolling together in one and oh. <em>Oh.</em> This is why none of the rulers in Dyved’s history were actively corrupt. They <em>couldn’t</em> afford to be. Their souls are tied to the land. Reincarnation makes it so that it’s the same soul ruling somehow, even if they don’t remember it.</p>
<p>Marlin, Lance, Galahad, Pwyll, no matter their new name all of them held the same soul name, <em>Arawn.</em></p>
<p>The very soul name that he has now. The same name that makes it so that even if he was only a half-elf, half <em>Pendragon</em> he’s still able to rebuild Dyved with his magic. The rest of the clans will answer the call. While their magic may not be tied to Dyved, their blood is and their blood will call to them. He can <em>sense</em> it.</p>
<p><em>Welcome home, Arawn. </em>Dyved murmurs.</p>
<p><em>I’m home. </em>Hayden replies as he suddenly senses it. <em>So many lives, but still a small number than it used to be. </em></p>
<p>Life and magic now tied to Dyved, he can sense each life of the elves, the blood from all five clans connecting him. It’s breathtaking, sensing them as little lights, alive and well. When King Cu was still alive the fighting made it painful. Made him mad with pain and grief because he sensed the deaths of every elf falling like flies, lights turning off and making him want to scream because <em>Faerlan is dead, Hosanna is dead, Oak and Holly are children but they’re <strong>dead-</strong></em></p>
<p>But this time, he won’t be like King Cu who fell with Dyved.</p>
<p>He’ll rebuild it, let it rise up because he’s done everything for this and by the spirits of the earth, Hayden will build it back up brick by brick with his bare hands if he had to. Everything he had done was for this and he’ll be damned if he won’t see that it rises like a phoenix, brighten and much more stunning than it was before.</p>
<p>For King Cu who died, King Pwyll who grieved, his mother who burned, and for <em>Ilenan</em> who sacrificed himself, who was his <em>brother</em> for all but blood.</p>
<p>The night would be quiet and tranquil if not for his screams as magic and memory filled him like a vessel. Glowing runes and kicked up whirlwind that swirls and hides and protects the newest king and the city of the lost as it builds itself. Rubble and stone, dust and moss and vines, disturbed and moving and <em>building.</em></p>
<p>Hayden wakes up the next morning, tired and drained, but <em>proud.</em></p>
<p>Dyved has risen.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I wrote this to get back in touch with an old OC of mine that I made two years ago. Hayden's story was one where he felt more like a follower than a leader, deferring to his adoptive brother Ilenan for what to do besides wander the lands like a ghost, only to end up losing Ilenan and being forced to acknowledge his own worth that he had downplayed due to his near blind loyalty to Ilenan. It was also one where he carves a home for himself and lives up to what he knew he would have to do but didn't wish to for whatever reason, rebuilding Dyved. There's a few other schematics like him being technically a run away slave since at the time, I had a huge fondness for Fenris from Dragon Age II, as well as the fact he was supposed to be a rude loudmouth that never shuts up due to some other issues of his which bled away to him simply being tired with everythingand the only thing keeping him going was the goal of Dyved. </p>
<p>If you got to read all of this, thank you for reading and have a nice day!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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